Gifts
by W.C.Reaf
Summary: The lives of a family were shattered, broken and wrecked as a single event changed them forever. Aftermath fic
1. Chapter 1

This is a rewrite of my first KP fic. More characters added to it, it's bigger, better, and with a little bit of angst thrown in. Hope you guys like it.

Enjoy.

Title: Gifts (1/4)  
Author: Wild Card Reaf  
Fandoms: Kim Possible  
Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever owned Kim Possible, Disney does unfortunately. Any characters you don't recognise are most likely mine.  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: A little bit of Go Team Go but that's it. The name 'Go Town' is not a mistake on my part, just a bit of fun saying it used to be a town which then grew into a city. Of course they had to change the name to Go City after that. It was my own idea, not part of the canon.  
Summary: The lives of a family were shattered, broken and wrecked as a single event changed them forever. Team Go story with plenty of twists.

* * *

I saw the aftermath, the day clearly imprinted on my mind; it was my second month working the graveyard shift in the E.R. The nights were usually quiet, as is usual in a town like Go Town. The most challenging cases would usually be a S.H.A. (Sexually Humiliating Accident), I once had to remove a talking parrot toy and a rolled up Healthy Lifestyles magazine, and that was just in one night. But that's about as much excitement as I would get, the rest were mostly hypochondriacs looking to set aside their fears.

It was then that I heard it, well more like felt it, the ground trembled like an earthquake and the room trembled around me. I quickly pulled a nurse away from a falling cabinet, I held her in a doorway until the shaking subsided. I told her to wait a few minutes in case of an aftershock, when none came we assumed it was safe to venture out and see what had happened.

I decided that it was best if we went separate ways, she would go in search of the staff and I would check on the patients and see if any were injured, well anymore injured. We were lucky, few cuts and bruises and a lot of patients had fallen out of their beds, but that was the worst of it.

That was until I got the page, an emergency was inbound, six unidentifieds, one with serious burns. It was later that I wished for all the S.H.A's in the city to come in exchange for these six to be unharmed.

* * *

The rooms were prepped, all on call doctors were called and even a few who weren't were, burn units were being prepared. But all we had to 'greet' the patients were the three doctors (including myself) covering the night shift, a small staff of nurses and six clean beds. We all hoped that would change, none of us believed it could have been done before they arrived.

We were right.

The ambulance siren was drowned out by the doctors and nurses.

"Do we know who they are?"

"I need two CC's of…"

"What happened to their skin?"

I took charge of the situation immediately, "Alright we need to move them. This one needs burn treatment. Stat!" I barked orders out left, right and centre as I went with the most injured patient, the oldest of them, 'The mother' I had guessed.

They appeared to be a family or a group of friends: the youngest were a set of twins, they both had minor burns on their arms and some cuts and bruises. They seemed about three or four years old and they both had dark almost red skin. The second youngest looked only a year or half a year older than the twins. His chest had been burnt, but it was nothing too serious or life threatening. His skin had been turned a dark shade of purple and his hair resonated with that. The next was a girl, mustn't have been over five years. She was the luckiest of the group; she had no burns, not even a singe. I could tell that her arm was either broken or dislocated, a cursory examination was all I did. She had only a slight pale green tinge to her skin and hair. The apparent oldest of the children, by only a year or so, had the most distinguishing feature out of all of them, a healthy Caucasian skin tone. I still don't know why but I have a few ideas. His back and upper arms minor burns on them. The last patient was a mid thirty's woman with a dim yellowy skin and hair tone. Her injures were the most severe out of the six. Third degree burns covered her back, arms and parts of her legs. She needed surgery ASAP in order for her to survive that night.

We rushed her straight to surgery and got her prepped. I'm not proud of the fact that I felt nauseous when I looked more closely at the woman's back. The clothes she was wearing were melted into her skin. Me, a doctor for so long I can't even remember when I didn't think of medicine, and yet my stomach turns to mush after I see someone's skin liquefied and their nerve endings destroyed. At least she wasn't in any pain. At least, that was what we all thought. But that night held more surprises than we could imagine.

What happened next…. Well even now I still don't know what to make of it. Fate, Karma, some drunken higher power, just random chance or perhaps something science hasn't yet been able to explain. Whatever the case, it won't help them now.

Her body…. Her… there's only one way I can describe it, she was glowing. Honest to whatever God there is, she glowed. It was a light yellow colour that resonated from her skin. The nurses who were prepping her backed away slowly, one even made a comment about radiation.

Let me tell you that that wasn't the strange part.

I was halfway to calling the 'men in lead coats' when I heard one of the nurses gasp, some the rest of them followed suit. When I saw it I did the same. Her skin, the burnt flesh, was moving. That's the only way I can describe it, moving. The patient was perfectly stationary, but her damaged flesh was just…. Moving.

It took me a few seconds of amazement to understand what was happening, not **how, **that still puzzles me to this day, but what. It seems pretty simple, the skin was healing. Healing in the fraction of the time it normally would take.

Then as sudden as it happened it stopped, the glow dimmed and faded. The room was eerily silent, and then the screaming started.

The patient screamed in terrible pain, her skin still burnt, or the part that I could see still was, but not as badly as before. Some of the flesh had even grown back.

From an educated guess I surmised that her nerves had, at least partially, regenerated and were defiantly working.

"Nurse, I need morphine here, stat." I yelled out to the nearest nurse. I almost had to shout again when no one moved, almost. She'd scrambled through the draws for one, her shaking hands passed the syringe and vile to me. I quickly calculated the dosage required and injected the patient with it.

After the eternity, it was only just a few seconds, the screams died down. I checked her pulse, it had calmed down and her body stopped shaking.

I checked over the rest of her injures to see if the same 'healing effect' had occurred.

Apparently it had. She was in no immediate danger and I didn't have any idea if it would happen again.

"Finish getting those clothes off, run a full battery of tests and then move her in with the other patients for observation. No surgery, for now."

"Doctor?" One of them questioned.

I interrupted before she had a chance to fully ask, "For now we need to assume that what happened, whatever it was, was a fluke. We need to know what we are operating on and what just changed in the last few minutes. Try to keep what just happened to yourselves. We don't want to raise questions we don't have a clue how to answer, yet. I'm going to check on the other patients. And I want those test results as soon as they come in."

With a chorus of "Yes Doctor." they went to run those tests on the patient. I left to see if it really was a fluke.

* * *

"Doctor Doable! Doctor Doable!" A young trainee doctor, that someone somehow managed to draft in to help us, called after me.

"Can I help you, Mike?" I asked as politely as I could at 2:47 in the morning, albeit it wasn't a lot.

"Dr Schooley wants to see you." He wheezed, slightly out of breath. He should have been doing more exercise, if he was fitter things like that wouldn't have happened. Sorry, I go into 'Doctor mode' as Kimmie calls it, sometimes without realising.

Where was I?

Ah yes…

"What a coincidence. I was just going to look for him." I said pushing the elevator button again.

He looked at the button and then at me before asking, "It's working?"

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, "Roberts's been telling you to take the stairs again?" He nodded as the elevator doors swished open, "You know he does have a point in making you run up three flights of stairs, Dr Du."

He beamed slightly; he always did like it when somebody called him doctor, and we made our way inside, "If I wanted to do lots of pointless running," He said, with emphasis he pushed the floor button we wanted, "I'd have joined the army, or the mail service."

That gave us both a giggle. Say what you want about Michel Du, but you can't say he doesn't have a sense of humour, "How's Joan?"

He looked at me with a smile that could only be produced be one thing, "She's doing great. It looks like it might be Christmas birth."

"Defiantly in the season."

"Yeah, it is." He had a longing look on his face that I had wished to see on James' soon after that.

"Can't wait to get back to her?"

"Every second that goes by I wish I was with her."

There was a short silence before I asked the question that had been on my mind, "So why does the good doctor want to see me?"

"Well it's the little girl." That one salient piece of information got my attention straight away, "She's awake."

* * *

To Be Continued

By W. C. Reaf


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Gifts (2/4)  
Author: Wild Card Reaf  
Fandoms: Kim Possible  
Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever owned Kim Possible, Disney does unfortunately. Any characters you don't recognise are most likely mine.  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: A little bit of Go Team Go but that's it.  
Summary: The lives of a family were shattered, broken and wrecked as a single event changed them forever. Team Go story with plenty of twists.

* * *

I saw Robert waiting outside the room, playing with his yoyo, 'Typical, never one to see a patient.' I remember thinking as I approached him, "You could always go in and see her yourself?"

He showed little sign of actually hearing me, apart from a yoyo that hung in midair, "But I know how much you like kids." He turned and grinned at me. I then noticed my hand had started to rub my stomach absently, "Lets get this over with quick; we don't want to keep you away from that fiancé for yours."

I was glaring so hard at him by then that it was a wonder he didn't spontaneously combust. I decided to bring the conversation back to medicine, "Did you perhaps notice anything unusual happen to any of the patients?"

"Well if you count the glowing," The yoyo had started to spin again, "or the increased regeneration of their skin, or both, then yes you could say I noticed something unusual."

"Got you stumped, hasn't it?" I know I shouldn't have said that, but that man always needed a push to get motivated. The yoyo quickly returned to his pocket and my heart danced with that insignificant victory, "I've suspended surgery for the moment. We should get every possible test done and get someone down here to check for radiation."

He soon left with Mike in tow, who gave a small wave as he went. I stayed outside the room for a few moments, deciding what to say and how much.

As I entered the relatively small room I spied the girl. She was the picture of innocence, my heart, fresh from dancing, melted slightly as I watched her play with a heart monitor.

I looked over her appearance more toughly, her black hair off set perfectly with her now pale green skin. I'm still not certain now how it happened. Skin just doesn't turn green in such a short period of time. I worry about what that might have done to her psychological well being in the long run.

That moment's reflection will forever be marred with my purpose there that day, "Hi." I jumped slightly when she spoke to me.

I geared myself up and sat beside her on the bad, "Hello, what's your name?" I already decided on the direct approach in order to get more information as quickly as possible as I could.

"You'd think it's silly. I've got a stupid name" She said as any child would when you ask them a question.

"Don't say that. I'd bet it's a nice name." Nothing, "It can't be any worse than mine. How about, I'll tell you mine and you tell me yours. If you want, deal?" She started thinking about it, then gave a small nod of agreement, "Willow Bethany Doable. Bad isn't it?"

That got a giggle out of her, and I smiled at the sight, "Kathleen," She finally said, "Kathleen Tiffany Goshine." Sitting up properly she proclaimed her name.

I chuckled in spite of myself, "I still think mine's worse."

Kathleen agreed with me and started looking at me with a mixture of wonder and curiosity, "You've got pretty hair." She finally stated as she reached up to touch my red hair.

We just sat while Kathleen stroked my hair. I knew what I had to do, what to ask. It inevitably came caroming towards me, "Sweetie, do you know why you're here?" I asked quickly and she nodded equally fast, "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Her eyes looked into mine sadly. The hair rubbing then stopped, "Will it help?" I nodded at her, "Then I've got to." I smiled bravely at her.

"It was late, later than we should've been up. Mel was by the window of our room looking at the night sky. He spotted something and pulled me up to look. I couldn't see it at first, but Mel pointed me straight at it. A big star, biggest I'd seen. Then I thought 'bout how we don't normally see stars and when I looked again I saw the star was bigger. It kept getting bigger as we looked at it."

"Mommy came in then, told us to go to bed. She was up late as well, waiting for daddy to get back. Mel pulled at her to go look. When she did she looked confused. Then she let out bad words she told us not to use."

"Mommy took my hand as well as my brothers and led us out of our room and into the hall. She told us to put our shoes on as she walked into our brothers' room. Mel looked at me and scratched his head. I didn't know what to tell him, so we put our shoes on. Mommy came back with our brothers', Hershel, Weddle and Wendell."

"Mommy put her boots on while my other brothers' put their shoes on. She told us we had to go. Bad things were going to happen. That's all she would say. Mommy told us to run and we did."

"We were running out side our home, Hershel was in front with Mel just behind, each of them held onto one of the twins. I saw a flash of colour and heard a crash boom sound. It came from the tree house, or where it should have been. When I looked back it wasn't there, I didn't see where as I was going and I tripped. Mommy picked me up and ran with me in her arms. Another loud bang happened and…."

She suddenly stopped and started to violently shake. Her body spasmed and a green glow enveloped her. I reached out my hand but recoiled instantly. I looked at it as it stung as if from intense heat. I could feel that same heat from where I was stood.

The sheets started catching fire around her. I jumped at the sight of it and did the only thing I could do. I called for a nurse and grabbed one of the curtains, pulled it off and used it to try and dampen the flames. When I looked back at Kathleen she'd stopped shaking and glowing, but small fires where still around her as she laid on the bed with her eyes closed.

I prayed she wasn't as I moved to put out the rest of the fires with the remains of the curtain. Checking her pulse and breathing I soon gave a heavy sigh of relief, and thanked that she was still with us.

* * *

I sat in the cafeteria with a semi steaming cup of coffee in my hands, when I took a sip I winced slightly at the taste. Three things hospitals never, ever, get right: food, drink, and coffee. You'd think they were spending their money elsewhere, medical prepuces perhaps.

All reflection aside, the reason I was sitting in a relatively empty cafeteria, with one of the worst cups of coffee I've had since last Thursday, was because I needed thinking time. And boy did I have a lot to think about.

First: all of the family apparently had similar 'symptoms' as Kathleen. The twins went to quads and back again in a matter of minutes. One of the brothers disappeared and then reappeared again, but his gown was ripped and his arms were sticking through the holes in it. The other brother had pieces of his bed twisted, bend and broken. Their mother vanished as well, only she didn't come back to us as such. Her gown was on the bed but that was it. We were about to call a full hospital search when nurse spotted her under a bed, on the floor below her room. The weirdest thing was that that wasn't the weirdest part of the day.

Secondly: The family 'glows', almost all of them, seemed to share the same colour as their current skin tones. The radiation boys drew a big negative on them, higher than the average person, if the average person worked in a nuclear plant, but nothing lethal.

Dr McCorkle cut those internal musings off when he came barging in waving the test results. Ok so barging wasn't the right word but it'll do. He opened the folder and pointed to a particular section of the mothers CAT scan. I would have made a sarcastic remark about his greeting skills, but I nearly choked on my coffee when I saw what he was pointing to.

"Are you sure about these?" I asked in shock and wiped a bit of coffee off my chin.

"Positive. I know the pervious tests didn't show anything, but we can't just ignore this." With emphasis he showed the old CAT scan we took before the second 'glow' incident.

"Just great, a blood clot in her brain. You've scheduled the surgery?"

"They're getting ready to perform now, and that blood clot is taking centre stage." His attempt to lighten the mood didn't help, then again neither did mine.

"Let's make sure it doesn't get to the second act." I know how bad that was and I don't like to be reminded of my sense of humour.

We left the joking in the room and went to see how the surgery was doing. It wasn't going to be that hard, it was only brain surgery, nothing serious or complicated there.

* * *

To Be Continued

By W. C. Reaf


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Gifts (3/4)  
Author: Wild Card Reaf  
Fandoms: Kim Possible  
Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever owned Kim Possible, Disney does unfortunately. Any characters you don't recognise are most likely mine.  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: A little bit of Go Team Go but that's it  
Summary: The lives of a family were shattered, broken and wrecked as a single event changed them forever.

* * *

We stood outside the glass partition and watched the surgery unfold. It had yet to start and the head surgeon was going to make the first incision to open her head. Then it happened again, the yellow glow.

The surgeon, who by then must have been baffled by what had been going on on his table, must have momentarily lost control of his scalpel. It fell from his hand into the patients head. When I say into I do mean **into**, like the skin wasn't even there. From my shocked position I could see most of what was going on, and the lack blood, surprised me. What surprised me more was the lack wound accompanying the surgeon pulling out the scalpel.

I pounded on the partition and called a stop to the operation. We later found small chips on the scalpel that appeared to be bone. The only apparent answer made no physical sense, but the scalpel had gone straight through the patients head and had luckily been stopped by her skull.

I'm still debating whether or not that that was really lucky, because by then things started to fall into place and I knew the what's, I didn't care for the why's, and wasn't sure of the how's. The main problem, however, was treatment. How do you treat someone against their own body?

* * *

"Your brothers are going to be fine, they just need some rest." I told Kathleen while I checked for any injuries from the families latest 'glow attack'.

"Is mommy going to be ok?" I instinctively knew that was coming when I looked into those green eyes, wide like a puppy's, pouting.

I hesitated a little, "Kathleen, your mother's is…. is." Okay, I hesitated a lot.

Thankfully I was saved from lying, "She's going to be alright kido. That's if I have anything to say about it." Someone did it for me. That someone was a woman around my age, with brown hair dark eyes and a black business suit on.

"Aunt Betty! Aunt Betty!" Kathleen jumped from the bed, and my arms, and clung to the woman's legs.

'Betty' kneeled down to Kathleen's height and started talking to her. I didn't catch any of it; I was too rapped up in this 'betty' character. If she was a relative, or not, then how did she find out they were here? The police were too busy with the accident to give us any information on the family, even with the details Kathleen provided, which wasn't a lot as she was only five. Thankfully there were few other wounded, but a lot of people had been trapped in buildings because of the tremor. So the question was: how did this 'Betty' find out this is where they were?

Those thoughts were interrupted when 'Betty' brought a yawning Kathleen over to the bed in her arms. She tucked her young charge under the covers, whispering a "sleep tight" and kissing her slightly green forehead.

She then ushered me out of the room before she turned the lights out for Kathleen to sleep. We walked away as to not disturb her with our conversation.

"Who are you and what do you know about this?" I started waving my arms around a bit, she chuckled at it. Now that I think back on it it was a pretty silly thing to do.

"Direct, I like that." She gazed back towards the room momentarily, "I'm not related to them, but I worked with their mother."

"What kind of work?" I interrupted. Impolite I know, but by then I didn't feel like being that polite.

As an answer she produced an I.D out of her wallet. It stated, "Dr Betty Director, CIA"

"How did you know she was here?" I repeated my earlier question, "And if your next words are, "National Security" I'm leaving." I folded my arms and waited for her response.

She put her I.D away before answering, "It's not. I was going to say that the CIA has had the residence of Mrs Lena Goshine under surveillance since she moved there."

My ears barely believed what they heard but after the rest of the night it seems very plausible compared to it, "What did she do?"

Of course she expected that question, "Retired." She stated simply with a little hesitation, "She's my friend and a former colleague. The CIA always looks after its own." There was little I could do then but except that.

"So what did your surveillance people see?"

"That Lena….um Mrs Goshine and her children were running from their house when it exploded and, from what they've described, some sort of shockwave hit them." That confirmed what Kathleen had told me.

"What happened to 'your people'?"

"Who do you think called it in?"

That piece of information didn't shock me in the slightest, "What type of Doctor are you?"

"Oh, the sciences." She didn't want to give me any details, or wasn't allowed to, "Do you always ask so many questions?"

"Only if it helps me help my patients." I motioned for her to follow me to the elevator, "Do you know what could alter someone on a cellular level, change their appearance and allow them to develop certain attributes?"

Her face was a mixture of fear and terror; she defiantly knew what I was referring to, "Certain chemicals or non lethal doses of radiation **might** do it. But I'm not sure of what exactly." She sighed and rubbed her eyes as we got into the elevator, "I take it this has something to do with Kath's different colouring?"

I leaned back against one of the walls, exhausted, "Yes. Almost all of the Goshine family have radically altered skin tones and all of them have displayed unique abilities that present themselves when their bodies go into seizures and they also glow their individual skin colours."

I could tell she was trying to be as professional as she could when faced with something that tragic as that, so was I and neither of us had succeeded very well, "What kind of "unique abilities"?"

"They all have improved healing, Body duplication, increased muscle capacity, bodily mass alteration, Kathleen's body has produced enough heat to start small fires around her bed," I sighed, closed my eyes and went further back onto the elevator wall, "but Mrs Goshine's, she has the worst. She has been altering the density of her overall mass, making it nearly impossible to treat her."

"She can move through solid material? Why not just wait until she's stopped seizing and then treat her?" She was like most of the relatives that I had to deal with, quick to question the doctor's judgment. Not that I blame them for it, I'd do the same if I was in her position, "You missed someone out. I only counted five attributes."

"The twins share the same ability." I explained.

"That's not very unique." She tried to lighten the situation with a joke, and I think she enjoyed picking apart my assumed mistakes.

"Neither are twins." A grating voice came from the hallway that could only come from one man. Then I realised the elevator had stopped and the doors had opened. Dr Director met Dr Schooley's eyes and locked them with her own without flinching, let me tell you now that's hard task to perform. I don't she like what she saw as her face grew cold and hard.

"Doctor, what is the status of the patient?" I decided to step in before Robert said anything likely to start an argument, which was whenever he wasn't talking about work.

"She's getting worse. McCorkle was right, the blood transfusions we use for radiation treatment has slowed it down and her seizures are becoming shorter. But it'll only take a few more to render her effectively dead." We walked towards Mrs Goshine's room as we talked. I had decided to let Robert fully inform Dr Director of the patient's condition.

"Schooley, why don't you tell Dr Director here about how Mrs Goshine's symptoms are causing us to, how did you put it, "Wander around in the dark with pencils in our eyes."."

"She's paraphrasing." Dr Director didn't even acknowledge that he said anything at all and just looked straight ahead, "Well 'Mrs Goshine' is currently suffering from seizures that allow her body to pass through solid matter. The problem is that her body isn't changing to an incorporeal state at the same time. With the last seizure her hands moved and her fingernails didn't and now, let's just say she won't need to paint them anytime soon. We've strapped her to the bed in the hope that she won't loose any important bits. The main problem is inside the body, all those organs that could drop out of her at any moment. She could stop breathing because her lungs aren't there anymore and if th…."

Dr Director interrupted him and effectively guessed what he was going to say, "And if the cerebral cortex is affected she could be loose all her body's contact with the brain and simply die. Or worse, part of her brain goes and the rest is still physical, then when it comes back all of those interconnections the brain has will be irreparably damaged." I saw tears freely flow down her checks and even to this day I can't imagine what she went through that night, "That's no way to die."

I placed my hand gently on her shoulder, but that offered little comfort, "We'll do everything we can for her. I promise." I could not offer hope to her, or even an illusion to cling onto when things were going dire. There was little I could do to make things better for her except perform the impossible. So then I set my mind to do just that.

We reached in silence and when Dr Director saw the prone form of Mrs Lena Goshine she instantly rushed to her side. She had a brain monitor attached to her so we could see any difference in her brain activity before and after the seizures. Her heart monitor kept beeping at slow regular intervals. Her wrists, arms, ankles, thighs, waist and head were strapped tightly and secularly to the bed. It was wishful thinking that it would help against something that literally could go through the restraints and anything else. But "desperate times lead to desperate decisions" as my mother used to say.

Dr Director pushed past a nurse and stood beside Mrs Goshine, her hand hesitantly hovering over the other woman's, unsure if she could actually touch her, whether or not it would do any damage to her if she did. She decided not to and just stared sadly at the motionless woman, "At least she's sleeping."

It's amazing what simple statements conjure up in other peoples minds. That last statement sprung this set of thoughts, 'Yes she's sleeping, a state in which the brain is most active doing numerous tasks that most people take for granted. If only there was some way to do the opposite, then….' That's when the proverbial light bulb went on over my head.

* * *

I asked Robert to talk with me outside the room; I told myself then that it was to keep professional, but what I wanted was to stop the spread of any false hopes in a treatment that had as much likely hood of working as… as….. Walking through walls was the only thing that came to mind.

I quickly told him my idea, trying to get his confirmation on a foolhardy plan.

Of course I knew what his reaction would be, "You've been taking patient's medication again, haven't you." Always a quip, always a jibe. He just happened to be right, the idea was too farfetched.

It was basically this; a chemically induced coma. Her entire body would go into a 'stand by' mode and use as little bodily functions as possible. That would more than likely stop the seizures and give us time to finish the blood transfusions to clear up most of the residual radiation in her system.

"You know all we're doing is basically rubbing Aloevera into the wound constantly until it goes away." His grating voice always got on my nerves, actually it got on almost everybody's nerves, "But what's one more ineffective treatment for something we know next to nothing about?"

I smiled at him then. I knew that he wouldn't have agreed to do it if he didn't think it had a chance.

We started the treatment as soon as we could. We didn't get any objections to it and the only difficulties we had were convincing Dr Director to take a break from Mrs Goshine's side and rest. She only left to get some coffee and visit Kathleen.

I hadn't the heart to go see the little girl. She…. Well I didn't want to bring any false hopes to her, or tell her that we put her mother in a coma to save her life, that we weren't sure that it would do anything to help.

We were giving blood transfusions to all of the children, hoping to stop their regular seizures. And it did the trick, I think. In the next few hours all of them had their seizures reduced, one even had his stop altogether. Though he still had the 'glow', as it was dubbed by everyone who had seen it, but none of the ill effects his younger siblings had.

Soon after that they all stopped seizing. Boy did they ever cause such a commotion when they saw their glows for the first time, and its effects. Shrinking, duplication, increased strength, we had our hands full trying to calm them down. The worst was what happened to Kathleen, when a fire broke out next to her for the first time she did as any scared child would have done. She latched onto the closed person she could, the nurse attending her. She only had small burns her hands and arm, but was otherwise fine. Sufficed to say she didn't go into Kathleen's room again. We found the scared girl huddled in a corner behind a bed, afraid to even touch anyone in case she hurt them. Her 'Aunty Betty' managed to coax her out and she told her that none of it was her fault. I don't think she believed her.

That poor child.

* * *

We surmised that all their glows were on a sort of time delay, that's the best way I can think of describing it. Every seizure, every glow happened at the same time for all of them, the pattern was obvious. The effects of the radiation were varied with all of them, but their bodily reactions to it were the same. "Expulsion of excess energy through the seizures" was the theory I put forward after the fact.

Not that we had known that much at the time, we don't even know much more than that now. The fact remained that it was a safe bet that once the children stopped seizing and glowing then the mother might be ok. That is until you take into account for the fact that she wasn't expending the energy because she was in a coma.

So we waited another few hours after the children stopped to make sure the blood transfusions had done their job and we had the radiation boy check all of them. The children still had very small amounts of radiation on them and the mother was only slightly higher than that. We set up a safety margin based around the others results and did everything we could to push her under that margin.

When everything looked clear, and Dr Director had given her approval, we took her out of the coma. Or at least we tried to.

More damage was done than initially thought. We….we couldn't do little more than watch her as she went into a catatonic state. Cold and unmoving, she simply stared into space with eyes that showed no signs of life.

I have no idea when it happened, our worst fears imagined. It could have been the seizure before we put her into the medically induced coma, or it might have been the very first one she had. No amount of miracles that I'd witnessed that night could change that fact. Her brain was dislodged slightly and separated from itself. There was no mend, nothing I could do; she was never going to recover from it.

When I saw little Kathleen that one last time I wished I could have done something more for her than take away someone in her life. I could tell she had lost all of her innocence that day.

* * *

To Be Concluded

By W. C. Reaf


End file.
